Jenny MarderSurfing is like coffee for Dave...

Jenny Marder

Surfing is like coffee for Dave Carlos. If he hasn’t surfed in a few

days, he gets moody and restless.

Carlos started surfing the north side of the Huntington Beach Pier

when he was 12. He remembers growing up through a series of surf

moves -- doing his first cutbacks, catching his first tube ride,

landing his first barrel. He remembers the excitement of seeing

celebrities like Randy Lewis and Bud Llamas in the water.

And Carlos, now 38, remembers the old Surf Theater on 5th Street,

where he used to file in with friends and fellow surfers to view

classics like “Five Summer Stories,” “Many Classic Moments” and “Bali

High.”

“There’s no other feeling in the world like surfing,” Carlos said.

“You’re standing on the water.”

To the delight of many Surf City surf bums, Carlos and his wife,

Leslie, are breathing life into the old tradition, which died when

the surf theater was torn down in 1989 and replaced by a parking lot.

As soon as the husband and wife team rented out the Mann Pierside

Pavilion Downtown for the first time in November to showcase local

filmmaker Timmy Turner’s “Burning the Map,” the idea caught a wave --

a big wave. Over the past several months, their company, Big Red

Productions, has been holding three shows a month and has expanded

surf theater to other cities like Santa Monica, Encinitas and

Ventura.

Next week, they will host their first full-fledged film festival,

scheduled to coincide with the U.S. Open of Surfing. From Tuesday

through Saturday, the festival will showcase two surf or skate videos

every evening at the Downtown theater and will feature the world

premieres of “The Modus Mix,” a film about female surfers, and “Push”

the latest from popular surfer Shane Beschen as well as “Crossing the

Line,” “Punk and Disorderly” and “Wow.”

Also included are the 1977 16-millimeter classic “Many Classic

Moments,” “16 Below, Vol. 2,” which features 16 and under skaters,

“Rise Above” and “Heart of the Sea.”

The atmosphere is playful and spirited and the theater frequently

packed. Like the old theater, people hoot, holler, throw popcorn and

toss beach balls around as surfers catch waves. The movies often lack

a cohesive plot, Leslie Carlos, said, but the audience seems less

interested in the plot than the waves.

“It’s just a bunch of people hooting and hollering and getting all

stoked on surfing,” Dave Carlos said. “As soon as you get done with

the movie, you want to get out and surf.”

One of the most buzzed-about films is a special directors cut of

Huntington Beach surfer Jessie Marley’s new film, “The Next

Generation,” a documentary that boasts tons of Huntington Beach

footage and interviews with several local surfers.

Marley, 26, used to be a pro-snowboarder, but after three knee

surgeries, decided to give up the snow for the surf, a sport that he

admits can be just as dangerous.

His movies, which he films, produces and edits, are filmed in

exotic locales like Hawaii, Costa Rica and Indonesia.

“I’m trying to show the new progression of surfers.” Marley said,

adding that he is often shocked by how fearless the new crop of young

surfers can be. “They’re starting to do crazy flips and huge airs.

They’re dropping into the wave that will kill you.”

Showing his films on the big screen brings back memories for

Marley, who used to go to the old surf theater with his dad.

“I see the parents that used to go to the surf theater and they’re

taking their own kids,” Dave Carlos said.

Carlos and his wife, who say that their mission is to set the

stage for today’s legends, have loftier goals than just showing

movies in Huntington Beach. They hope to some day follow the

professional circuits and take surf theater worldwide.

“It doesn’t matter what language you speak, everyone’s stoked on

surfing,” Dave Carlos said. “We’re bringing everyone together. We’re

trying to bring that feeling back.”